Lawyer seeks man deported to India to pursue exoneration

The lawyer for a man at the centre of a miscarriage of justice in a gangrape case says he’s trying to find his client in India in order to get guidance on what to do next.

Paul Briggs says new information released on Wednesday, nine years after the man was convicted of taking part in the brutal sexual assault, could exonerate his client.

After Gurdev Singh Dhillon lost the case on appeal, he was deported to his native country, India, Briggs said on Thursday.

“It would have had the effect, certainly at the appeal level, the level I was involved in, of actually changing the outcome of the appeal,” Briggs said.

“That is what is so concerning about this case.”

Dhillon was convicted of sexual assault for his role in the July 2004 attack on a 19-year-old teen in Surrey. His appeal of the conviction was dismissed in 2006.

RCMP learned of new evidence in 2011

Neil MacKenzie, spokesman for the BC Criminal Justice Branch, said officials became aware in 2011 that evidence about the case was not disclosed to the prosecution, and therefore not disclosed to the defendant.

RCMP said it was their own review of the case that year that raised a red flag and determined that the initial investigation “did not sufficiently consider additional avenues regarding other potential suspects”.

The sexual assault was described by the BC appeal court as “violent and serious” and resulted in making the teen pregnant.

Court heard she’d met two men at a party several months earlier and had spoken to them over the telephone before she agreed to go out with them. She was taken to the apartment of a third man, Dhillon.

The teen was subjected to a prolonged sexual assault and was physically beaten and threatened with death, the appeal court judgment said.

Dhillon’s trial lawyer, who was not Briggs, told court that Dhillon was “hanging in the background most of the time,” the court decision said.

Tests on underwear not passed on

The teen went to hospital, where she was examined by a nurse and her underwear was an exhibit at the trial, Briggs said the trial was told.

The prosecution never submitted any results of tests done on the underwear.

But Briggs said it now appears a DNA test was done and never passed on.

“It turns out, one was done and I don’t know when it was done,” Briggs said.

“All I know is that after Dhillon was convicted, his DNA was compared to these other two and found not to match and that was sometime in June 2006.”

Briggs argued the appeal in October 2006 and lost.

“If I had had that report, I could have submitted that as fresh evidence to the court of appeal and I believe I would have been successful in overturning that conviction on the basis of that report.”

Surrey RCMP Boss apologises

Apologising for the mistake RCMP chief superitendent Bill Fordy, the officer in charge of the Surrey detachment, on Wednesday said the mistakes are a concern to the force, as well as to the public.

The case was referred to a special prosecutor in 2011. Earlier this month, sexual-assault charges were approved against two men, who are scheduled to appear in Surrey court on April 5.

Dhillon, a permanent resident but not a Canadian citizen, was deported in 2008, said a spokeswoman for the Immigration and Refugee Board.

Briggs said he has had no contact with his client since the appeal was lost and he said he’s trying to find him to determine whether he wishes to pursue an appeal of the conviction.